Scorsese aims to shine a light on the rock of ages

In 1972, Mick Jagger appeared on an American TV show and was asked if he could imagine himself still performing at 60.

"Oh yeah, easily," the fresh-faced idol told interviewer Dick Cavett.

That little nugget is astutely spliced into Martin Scorsese's dynamite Rolling Stones concert movie Shine A Light, shot over two nights at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 2006 using a team of grade-A cinematographers.

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I saw it this week and I don't think I've seen a rock artist so alive on screen.

Jagger's a force of nature: bottle that energy and you'd have profits to rival Shell's.

You don't stay at the top of your game for four decades, though, by being easy-going.

The early part of the movie has an exasperated Scorsese trying to secure the set list from Jagger, who's being a tad irascible.

"Oh, you're the drummer!" Dorothy exclaims to Watts. Scorsese doesn't hit you over the head with his premise of time and survival, but his use of archive footage suggests an awestruck fascination with how this group has continued as a powerhouse for so long.

I noted it because I've always been struck by how the Stones have remained so vital.

On camera, Keith answers - in part - by saying: "The weird thing is, it's because we love what we do."

Boy, does that show in this film, whether it's singing As Tears Go By or Start Me Up or a groundshaking version of the Temptations hit Just My Imagination, which Jagger makes his own ("But in reality she doesn't f****** know me"), with a little help from Bobby Keys tearing away on tenor sax.

You sense that Scorsese is searching for a way to sum up the essence of the Stones.

He finds it in another old bit of footage where Jagger says something about the group's early success in the States being akin to a "chemical reaction".

That's probably it - and the Rolling Stones keep exploding over the decades, defying their age and keeping us satisfied.

Shine A Light opens the Berlin Film Festival next Thursday, with Scorsese and the group in attendance.

The film premieres in London on April 2 and goes on release on April 11.